Patriots look to end Eagles' postseason hopes

There is no debating the point: The New England Patriots could become Philly busters tonight.

Glen Farley

There is no debating the point: The New England Patriots could become Philly busters tonight.

With a record of 5-5, the Philadelphia Eagles enter tonight’s game with the Patriots at Gillette Stadium (8:15 – Channels 7 and 10; WBCN-104.1 FM) in a three-way tie with Washington and Arizona, one game behind the 6-4 Detroit Lions in the race for the second wildcard berth in the NFC.

At 7-3, the New York Giants hold down the wildcard lead in the NFC.

If the Eagles aren’t in a position where they need to run the post-Thanksgiving table in order to qualify for the playoffs, they’re close. A loss tonight would seemingly all but break their postseason aspirations.

As for the 10-0 Patriots, they could see their divisional dynasty extended before they even take the field tonight.

A Buffalo loss at Jacksonville this afternoon will secure the Patriots’ fifth straight first-place finish in the AFC East. Should the 5-5 Bills spring an upset against the 7-3 Jaguars, the Pats could then complete the task themselves with a win against the Eagles.

So much for the drama surrounding this game.

The Patriots went through the week as 23 1/2 point favorites over Philly, the largest point spread for an NFL game since Dec. 5, 1976, when the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 24-point underdogs to the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers (Pittsburgh covered, 42-0).

“Twenty-three?” Patriots linebacker Junior Seau repeated when a reporter asked him about his team’s role as heavy favorites tonight. “That’s Michael Jordan, isn’t it? I don’t deal with that. We don’t care about the point spread.”

Neither does Eagles running back Brian Westbrook, whose 1,367 yards from scrimmage lead the NFL.

“We’re not intimidated by the team,” Westbrook said. “We respect what they’ve done. We’ve seen that they’ve been able to put up a lot of points throughout the season.

“As a football player, you don’t go into the game intimidated. We respect what they’ve done, we respect the fact that they’ve scored a lot of points, and it’s up to us to neutralize their scoring ability and put some points on the board ourselves.”

Nursing a sprained right ankle and a swollen right thumb, this marks the fourth time in six years that the veteran quarterback has gotten injured at this time of year.

Lacking McNabb, who gave way to backup A.J. Feeley in the second quarter, the Eagles still managed to keep the Miami Dolphins winless last week, riding Westbrook’s career highs of 32 carries for 148 yards to a 17-7 victory, their second straight win (they won in Washington, 33-25, the previous week).

“As usual, they seem to be playing their best football (at) this time of year, Novemember and December,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “Like they always do.”

Near flawless since the start of the season, the Patriots enter tonight’s game having outscored their opponents, 411-157, for an average margin of victory of 25.4 points. Averaging 41.1 points, the Pats are just 30 shy of the franchise-record 441 points Ron Erhardt’s team put on the board during the 1980 regular season – and they’ve still got six games to play. The league-record 556 points the Minnesota Vikings tallied in 1998 may soon be coming into view.

“I have a hard time, as I think about it, thinking of anybody that’s done it better for 10 games than what the Patriots have done right now,” said Eagles coach Andy Reid. “Everything seems a little more poignant when you’re sitting here having to play them and they’re doing it at the present. There have been some good offenses before, but they’re doing it very well right now.”

-- The Enterprise

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